Ubuntu 11.10 VM including OpenJDK Build Image

[Wade Chandler]

On 02/17/2012 04:38 AM, Andrew Haley wrote:
> On 02/16/2012 08:57 PM, Wade Chandler wrote:
>
>> I agree. I feel like this is a major contributor to Open JDK not
>> being used as much; well, until now since the OS distribution
>> license is going away, but individually I think this type thing will
>> still push individual developers and small companies away. There
>> needs to be a central location where one can go and download various
>> version for their various platforms. As a developer using a product
>> to build a solution, myself and many others, do not want every
>> project we use to be a big ordeal to get going on various platforms
>> we need to deliver solutions.  It is a simple numbers game on time.
>>
>> If OpenJDK is going to be successful as other OSS projects, then
>> this is going to have to be a must sooner or later and preferably
>> sooner.
> I don't really understand this.  OpenJDK is installed as the default
> in every free OS, as far as I know.  I don't know much about
> proprietary operating systems, but I presume people download
> proprietary binaries from Oracle.  So, I presume you're talking about
> some group of people who don't want to use the proprietary binaries
> for some reason but instead want to use OpenJDK.  And not just
> OpenJDK, but a particular version of it, because their software is
> dependent on that version.
>

Per various differences, people download the Oracle JVM for Linux and 
Windows to build on top of it; different bugs, plugin issues etc. 
Various Linux distros have older versions of openjdk too btw depending 
on their update strategy, so unless you want  to immediately move to 
their latest release for a fix in openjdk you would get those yourself. 
Free/unfree OS doesn't play into it either way.

As it relates to bundling a particular version of a runtime with your 
software, whether it openjdk, python, perl, etc many do it. The same 
with statically linking C/C++ libraries into ones application or 
distributing shareable libraries in their own folder which gets 
prepended to the search path as to not be influenced by other 
applications. In consumer software there is nothing much more 
frustrating than trying to debug various updates to a 3rd party system 
which is only affecting certain groups of ones users since they could 
modify a specific component of the system you have designed or pieced 
together with a single click of an update reminder. It is all about time 
and money.

It comes down to a simple reality. Users don't care nor have the 
understanding as to why JRE or JDK 1.6_u19 versus 1.6_u21 causes an 
issue in some "unrelated" software. I know it isn't necessarily 
unrelated, but try explaining to an arbitrary K-12 teacher why another 
software vendor told them they had to upgrade to a different version of 
the JRE/JDK and it broke another application or vice versa.

I have experienced that from both sides. So, one of their vendors has to 
get in an upgrade before they are happy, and they are upset at both. 
Segregate those things so they are only a component of your designed 
system, and you don't have to deal with such things. What you tested is 
what you have running. Yes, OS updates etc can still cause issues, but 
at least one can minimise those changes.

It is what RedHat does with their professional JBoss offerings and 
Apache. It makes it a turn key solution.

Thanks,

Wade

-- 

=================
Wade Chandler

Software Engineer and Consultant
NetBeans Contributor
NetBeans Dream Team Member

wadechandler.com
netbeans.org